THE BURYING GROUND

"I yesterday passed a whole afternoon in the church yard, the cloisters and the church, amusing myself with the tombstones and inscriptions that I met with in these several regions of the dead. Most of them recorded nothing else of the buried person but that he was born upon one day and died upon another, the whole history of his life being comprehended in these two circumstances that are common to all mankind."

Should any one, surprised, inquire by what chance one whose life has been submerged in dangerous "practical studies knows of Joseph Addison s meditations upon Westminster Abbey, the answer is ready—a lonesome country college a half century ago, the absence of those seductive electives in Economics, or Biology, or Music, or Art which lure students from their well-earned sports, a ponderous personality who roared good literature at us with the inward gentleness of the sucking dove, and a noble liberality of the United Fraternity and the Social Friends in the circulation of their books.

It is to be held in memory that the settlement of the town began five years earlier than the establishment of the College, and homesteads were taken in a broken line around from the north-west corner to the Center, that the oldest place of burial was at the Center; and that the early population was surprisingly large. In "Hanover Forty Years Ago," Dorrance Currier tells us, doubtless from the records, that the population of the town of Hanover in 1800 was 28 more than in 1900. In 1771 Eleazar Wheelock set aside an acre, and this grant was later confirmed by the Trustees as "a burying ground for the use of this College and the inhabitants of this vicinity."

Our predecessors in the town and college left a record here as nowhere else. It is fragmentary, and must be read with sympathy, imagination, and the historic sense. There is no mental task more unnatural and difficult than to read the past in the light of its own standards and customs. In our pride in all the machinery and in the mind's broad scope of the present we fail to realize that the intelligence which we scatter over many affairs they were compelled to concentrate on a few. We forget that the intervening past and future—our past and their future—had not then arrived, that they had precedents which we do not recognize ; and we fail to see that they were as modern and progressive in their day as are the best of us now. We may smile at their ways of life and their modes of expression because they are unfamiliar, but for the same times and conditions we can claim no assured superiority. Even our sense of humor, so different from theirs, ends in complete irreverence. The settlers of the valley of the Connecticut were a staunch and sturdy band. Following closely as they did on the receding Indians they met recurrent waves of savagery with indomitable courage. Their quality as pioneers in a new territory was never surpassed unless by the Mayflower's company. They were seeking homes, not gold nor adventure; and —sure sign of worth—they brought along their wives and children. In Hanover in 1767, in a population of 92 there were 26 heads of families and 11 unmarried men. As a matter of course they brought along the church and the townmeeting. For Hanover the town government was set up before they took possession. They were progressives looking for larger liberty in the minor details of life than they had at home. Wheeloek's safe conduct to Dr. Crane for Sunday travel when he sent him in a hurry to Connecticut to delay Mrs. Wheelock and the Indian school is evidence, and, in a more piquant way, the exclamations of the early Canaan settler, "I don't want to stay any longer in a - place where I'm not allowed to kiss my wife on Sunday," and— worse yet—"We'll build a home up there where taint unlawful for a man to say 'damn it' if he is strongly tempted."

If. they were at times contumacious and obstinate it was with legal and not physical methods. They had no telephones nor daily papers nor moving- pictures to occupy their attention. It is possible to argue that they were of splendidly rugged bodies or they could not have endured the conditions of life as long as they did, or that they died untimely deaths from hardships and lack of care. The headstones tell too many tales of death by consumption, and of "infant sons," young wives, and men under fifty.

Wheelock's acre augmented on the north, is entered through Sanborn Lane between Robinson and Tuck Halls, and in all New England there can be no similar parcel of ground divided by a narrower boundary from perpetual youth and boundless vitality. From every human hope and eager forelook a step carries to the calm and completeness of the past. Without is work to be done, responsibility without limit to be taken on, the highest service to be performed; within is the story or the hint of work well done, burdens borne, service finished. Only once can one experience in full the new comer s pleasant shock of surprise as he comes from the paraphernalia of life, ugly but some think convenient—dusty streets, black sidewalks, poles where trees should be, ill-smelling engines, and the rest, to a spot made so beautiful by nature, the two promontories, the three ravines carved out by the water rushing to the sea, the ancient pines, the wild flowers in their season, and the whole carefully tended, but not marred, by perpetual care.

It is a place of historic inspiration and of affectionate memories. Of the eight deceased presidents of the College six are buried here. Dana and Tyler removed after their terms of office, and their graves are elsewhere. The bodies of about forty members of the faculty were placed here and those of many friendly villagers. After four years the students scatter to the ends of the earth, and if all of the living thousands did not love all their teachers equally, it must be that many affectionate thoughts go back to Sanborn and Noyes and Proctor and Patterson and Young and Frost and William Smith and Richardson and Wells and Updyke, and indeed to all the rest, from men who remember them yet. Families have grown up here in happy homes, and from the need of larger opportunities have gone over the land and across the seas, but they never forget, and in due season return to bear to this beautiful place of rest those who made the homes. How far reaching" this relation is may be imagined, since of the fourteen members of the academic faculty of my time I, the writer, know descendants, in the first or second generation, of ten, and I am not aware that the others left issue; and a similar statement could be made for the scientific and medical faculties.

The roll of burials numbers about 1200 for the 150 years; but this is certainly less than the actual number. The record was made up in 1912 from the tombstones ; some inscriptions were obliterated ; there were nameless graves; and a few names since have failed to be added to the list.

The center of greatest interest is a rod or two west of the eastern boundary of the older acre, for here the forefathers of the hamlet sleep. The honor of coming first belongs to the Rev. John Maltby, who died Sept. 30th, 1771. He was the son of Mrs. Sarah Maltby who became Wheelock's. second wife, and was held by Wheelock in fatherly affection. Had he lived he might have been the second president of the College. The inscription follows, Here refts ye Body of ye Rev'd Mr. John Maltby born at New Haven in Connectic Auguft: ye 3d A D 1727, Graduated at Yale College AD 1747 Minifter to a Presbyterean Church at Bermuda & Then at wilton in South Carolina. A strenuous afsertor of ye Doctrines of Grace Convinc'd of Original Guilt & Confiding in ye Sole Righteousnefs of Christ. Juftife, Loft Man, before God, In Preaching, Zealous & Pathetic, in his Devotions fervent, his Sermons Judicious Correct & Inftructive: his ftile Manly & Solemn, of Manners gentle Polite & humone of strong Mentel Endowments, embe llifh'd with Sacred & Polite Literature. In his Friendship Cordial sincere & truly Detefting Craft Difsimulatino & Fraud, he died Septr 30th (A.D. 1771) AFtat 45to

From the apparent accuracy of detail we may guess that it was drafted by Pres. Wheelock, but the archaic form and blundering workmanship may be ascribed to a local artist whose improving hand is recognizable in others of the early headstones. This, a horizontal slab, is dark and rusty, poorly weathered; a little of the inscription has broken away, and more will yield to a slight pressure. The early stones are plain slabs, quarried in East Lebanon for the first thirty years or so, of a poor quality of iron-bearing slate or schist, stratified, and easily breaking up along the plains of cleavage. They are commonly finished only on one side and with a trefoil outline at the upper edge. Similar stones are found in neighboring burying grounds of about the same period. Many of the inscriptions upon these stones in the graveyard at Hanover Center are wholly lost. Following the slate period, stones of a quality of soapstone, quarried in Vermont, were used for a time. Marble of a coarse variety, likewise from Vermont, comes into common use after 1800, and the inscriptions in some cases are very well-made and clear. Beyond the distinguished tombs of President Wheelock and his companions the simple slabs for headstones were held to be enough in the early days. Monuments are of much later date. Nearly all the later stones are of granite of many varieties and sources, some of them very beautiful in their polish. As one views the ponderous parallelopipedon resting over the remains of Asa Crosby one does not wonder at the frank belief of Jason Dudley that he would be a little late to the resurrection. And others whose escatology involves the literal uprising of the material body have reason for a like anxiety.

Next to Maltby's tomb are those of Eleazar Wheelock and his wife, and nearby those of John Wheelock and Bezaleel Woodward. All are of a similar general style to Maltby's with horizontal slabs, but of later date, and much better finish. Wheelock's is often quoted, but may not for that reason be omitted,—In Latin and English

Here rests the body of Eleazar Wheelock, S. T. D.. Founder, and first president of Dartmouth College, and Moors Charity School By the gospel he subdued the ferocity of the savages and to the civilized he opened new paths of science.

Traveler, Go, if you can, and deserve The sublime reward of such merit, He was born in the year 1710, and died in 1779.

Pietate filii Johannis Wheelock, Hoc monumentum constitutum, inscriptumque fuit.

Anno MDCCCX

And no living person would belittle the virtues of Mary Wheelock, wife of Bezaleel Woodward after reading, Her remembrance will last when this marble is defaced and the latest reader of this inscription is numbered with the dead The study of mortuary inscriptions and gifts to the dead has always interested the living. From these stones it is plain that at the end of the 18th century it was held to be essential to have other reading matter upon the gravestones besides the mere vital statistics, a custom which has continued with gradual decrease as monuments and headstones have taken the place of the simple slab. The elaborate detail of the Egyptian tombs is necessarily absent, and the terse often symbolic label of the shelf in the catacombs "In pace", "locus Petri", "dorMit", or the palm branch, was not enough. The leg-ends on these stones are pious if the deceased is the speaker, laudatory if the testimony of another, and very rarely expressions of grief. The headstone at the grave of young Mrs. Tilden is an example of several of the characteristics of these early Hanover inscriptions, In memory of Mr.s Achfah wife of Mr Joseph Tilden who died Dec 30th 1776 in her 28th Year Remember Frinds as you Pafs by as you be now fo once was I as I be now so muft you be, Prepare For death & Follow me " Students Row" discloses an amiable fraternal custom of the late 18th and early 19th centuries,—the setting of memorial stones by organizations of the College. Three were placed by the United Fraternity, three by the Social Friends, and two by the Theological Society. The earliest dated stone is to John Merrill, a freshman who died in 1797, and the list closed, perhaps for lack of material, with memorials to two freshmen in 1831 erected, one, by the Theological Society and one by the Social Friends. It is quite a tax upon the imagination to reproduce a freshman worthy of a monument by any Theological Society.

This one has no date but is probably prior to 1800. Here lie ye remains of Mr. Levi Washbourn of New Braintree Late a Member of ye School in this Place who died by a short and Violent Disease aged 18 Years & 5 months. Here Youth and beauty lose their grace In this reclase and gloomy Place Till ye angelic trumpet sound to wake this saint from under Ground Our young brothers of a century ago were not indifferent to the claims of fashion, and the fraternal slabs much resemble one another. The prevailing mode seems to have been, first a motto or text in Latin, then the statement of facts, or theme, followed by four to six original verses, which might be improvement of the theme.

This to Junior Spaulding is a perfect type, Omnium aetatum certum est terminus.

Consecrated by the United Fraternity, to the memory of Oliver Spaulding drowned in the Connecticut River A. D. 1807, July 29th With social affection and virtuous mind Exalted by genius, by science refined, Our Spaulding in rare combination did blend The man, the philosopher, poet and friend.

And these are the verses inscribed upon the gravestone of Senior Simonds whose death took place in 1801, Science, Religion in our Simonds shone And all the manly virtues were his own With anguished hearts we mourn his early doom And pay affection's tribute at his tomb.

Unfortunately the verses in other cases are nearly or quite illegible, but it is obvious that illiteracy in these inscriptions was not at this period inevitable, though it might have been held excusable.

Artemas Cook, a sophomore, died August, 1800, and his gravestone renewed in 1859 by a surviving college mate bears the following legend, Sons of Dartmouth! Your brother had quickness of apprehansion and aptness to teach, with the wages of teaching he bought instruction Of the many noble women buried here the names of four have become peculiarly wrought into the history of Hanover,- Mary Maynard Hitchcock in whose memory the Hospital was established, Emily Howe Hitchcock who founded and endowed -the Howe Library, 'Theodosia Stockbridge whose name is given to the Stockbridge Association for boys, and of whom one of her former boys declared, "No woman in our village ever exerted a like influence for good," and Christie Warden, an estimable young woman, whose name is associated with one of the most dramatic tragedies in New England.

The curiosity aroused by reading from a simple slab, Here lies the mortal wreck of Sally Duget In the midst of society she lived alone beneath the mockery of cheerfulness she had deep woes in the ruins of her intellect the kindness of her hart survived She perished in the snow in the night of Feb. 26, 1854 is satisfied in a letter to The Dartmouth Advertiser and Literary Gazette, dated March I, 1854, and published in the April number. The letter is signed', J. R., without doubt the Rev. John Richards, then minister of the College Church. Sally Duget's mother, born Hannah Rogers, was procured from Connecticut by Eleazar Wheelock to superintend Commons Hall. Sally, bright and well educated for the time, at the age of twenty-five met with a disappointment which unsettled her reason. For the last thirty years she lived the life of a hermit in a hut on Corey Hill. The epitaph placed on the stone was suggested by J. R. in his letter.

Of course here, as in all similar places since men put away their dead, the imagination finds ample scope for human interest. It is believed that evidence is here of hard conditions and lack of sanitary knowledge. I do not know that we can tell from these records alone. Twenty per cent of the inscriptions—about 240—are for children under 12; but the records of the last decade of the Town of Hanover show the same proportion. More careful scrutiny shows that in the careful later records almost exactly half are of nonviable, still-born, children, of which there is little evidence on the stones. Nearly twice as many children who drew breath are buried here, proportionally. From 1798 to 1813 inclusive are 8 recorded burials, not more than one in any year; in 1814 there are 4 and in 1815-16, and in the next two years one each. These and similar groupings suggest, but do not prove, some childish epidemic. There is one family group of 17, and of the 17, 14 were 24 or younger. Stones mark the graves of three children of Rev. John Smith, Professor of Languages, a daughter of 23, two sons of 28 and 18, all victims of consumption. We cannot charge these good people with neglect, but they may have had too much faith in "the mysterious dispensations of Providence."

There are evidences too of tough and enduring fiber. Eight members of the Flint family are grouped together whose average age was 60 years; and the 7 occupants of the Bridgman lot reached a total of about 500 years.

The section of the cemetery entered by the lane which passes the Chandler Building, the Hubbard House, and an unsightly ravine-head west of North Massachusetts is in its use about a century later than Wheelock's acre. To the antiquary it is much less interesting, but it is the resting place for the bodies of many who are still held in loving memory by the living. It was at one time connected with the older section by a footbridge which spanned the deep ravine and terminated near the little fountain. The bridge became unsafe and was removed, and funds for its restoration, unfortunately, have never been available. At the time of writing exact records of the annexation of the later addition and of the building and demolition of the bridge have not been found. The addition was brought into use about 1876, and the bridge was built in 1882, according to the best information attainable.

The Old Valley from the Northeast

The Graves of John Maltby and Eleazar Wheelock

The Forefathers of the Hamlet Sleep

A View in the Modern Section

EDWIN JULIUS BARTLETT '72 New Hampshire Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus